The United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s athlete council, in partnership with legendary sprinter John Carlos, has called on the International Olympic Committee to abolish its anti-protest rule.
The demand, formally presented to the IOC for the first time in a letter on Saturday, was made by U.S. Olympians on a Thursday conference call with the IOC Athletes’ Commission.
The Olympians targeted the infamous Rule 50, which has suppressed athletes’ voices and demonstrations at the Olympics for decades – perhaps most famously in 1968, when Carlos and Tommie Smith raised gloved fists during a medal ceremony and were subsequently expelled from the Games.